When You Dance I Can Really Love

Today is something old, something new. I personally still prefer something old, but let's not take too much away from something new...

Something New

Something Old

Today's Random Links
Lance Bass is gay! And he's dating an Amazing Racer!
I could go for an ice cold He'Brew...
iPod Accessories Gone Wild
Pimp My Child

Touch

I really have nothing to say, but typing about random nothing is apparently more interesting than last week's postings, so here we go.

Most of you know that Paul and I, and to some degree Mark, have been attempting to improve our skills at guitar in hopes of putting together something resembling a band. It's been a little over a year now that we've been hardcore back into playing, with both of us holding relatively new guitars. So we got together last Friday before the guys weekend to hang out, play guitar, and hopefully write a song. Mark had actually headed off to bed after our return trip from Toronto and it was a little after one in the morning when Paul and I actually decided to show one another a song we'd each been working on.

Long story short - we now have two solid works in progress. The tunes sounded good, and Paul suggested we seek out some of my old lyrics from the 90s, and found two songs that would fit with a little tweaking. Perhaps this band might go after all, and you'll all be invited to the concert.

Now for the fun part - today's links are.. odd.. ?

Today's Random Links
Shave everywhere! (SFW.. kinda..)
Beer fans have a new magazine.
Toilet training, Japanese style.
Star Trek and the Holy Grail (Thanks, Rob)
32 worst lyrics of all time

Everybody's Been Burned

I guess I haven't reported on the goings-on of the past few days. Last night Mary and I met up with Rob and Carrie for dinner. We tried out Fire & Ice in Markham at their suggestion, an interesting dinner concept that I quite liked. You pick a "protein" and a rice, then proceed to a vegetable bar and load your plate up high with all the veggies you want. Pass that to the "Volcano Chef" with your choice of sauce and they proceed to turn your rough beginnings into a tasty end. Salad bar is included to munch on while you wait. I rather enjoyed it - perhaps a few healthier and more interesting sauces would be helpful, but by and large it was a good dinner.

This weekend was "Social Wars 2", the second gathering of men for the purposes of doing whatever the heck we wanted to do. Saturday was launched with breakfast at Cora's and then a nine holes of golf at the poorly kept-up Eaglequest Golf at Highways 50 and 7. Sadly, we weren't expecting the heat and sun we got, and it appeared that most of us suffered some form of burn and/or sunstroke. We retired back to my place to relax and load up on liquids while introducting Joesepi (Junior) to 'Monty Python & The Holy Grail'. Once we were rested and ready we headed out to meet Mark after work in North York at Montana's, then headed to LaserQuest for the first time since Rob's bachelor party. I love LQ but man did I have a migraine from the sun earlier, and thus decided to find a corner of the maze and not move, shooting whatever came in my path. That little strategy earned me my highest score ever, and for the first time in about 16 years, I beat Rob. But at least he moved, so it was a shallow victory.

BTW, I got to practice my evil-reality-contestant persona to great success. Whenever one of my group of friends would stumble into my corner I'd offer to pair up and attack all oncomers alongside them. When they'd agree and run off down the hall, I'd shoot them in the back. Good times.

Riders On The Storm

Mary and I headed up to visit Craig and Cheryl last night, only our second chance to see little Ethan, or "Baby Wheat Thins" as he appears to now be called. I, as usual, was attacked by flying children, but that's always a good time. It was my turn to provide the dinner so I brought some pork ribs I had marinated for about eight hours in a mix of soy sauce, ginger, garlic, olive oil, lime juice, and sugar. They were a big hit alongside the corn on the cob with curry butter. Definitely something worth trying this summer if any of you are in to that mix of flavours.

On the way home we caught the aftermath of what I've been told first hand was a tornado, although it's not being reported as such. I'm not surprised - we hit three roadblocks on the way back, all fallen trees and power lines, and The Star is reporting parts of Highway 50 will be closed for a few days for clean up. Luckily we had power when we returned, unlike most of Bolton and half our subdivision.

Before I go, I was contacted by the authorities looking for two men wanted for impersonation of others on Zonkboards and appearing at tapings of pitiful television programs. Can anyone help identify these two?

Today's Random Links
Britain takes notice of our spokesbeavers.. I'm in the 11%
Angry wife seeks revenge with billboards and blog.. fake?
Ah crap! I missed Cow Appreciation Day!
I didn't know there was an MTV curse.

Overachievers

I was invited to participate in a free survey today that gathers information about you, your thoughts, and your actions on specific questions, and then presents a personality profile. Apparently it's frequently used by corporations to peg who their employees are and how best to utilize them, and I was promised it was a $75 value for only 20 minutes of my time. I figured I'd share:

They need people in order to maximize their natural gifts. Perceivers are not known to have innovative thoughts when they are alone. When they are with others, the generation of possibilities begins. They rarely think through an idea before presenting it, but rather talk about and develop the idea at the same time. This also inspires others to generate their own ideas. They seek people interaction in work and play.

So You Want To Be A Rock'N'Roll Star

So I admit I'm once again addicted to 'Rock Star', the CBS show searching for a lead singer for a band. Regardless of my hatred for Metallica and G'n'R I'm still enjoying the search for Supernova's singer, which is saying something. The one highly entertaining thing I'm finding is that there's a wealth of information about everyone involved last year - these truly are semi-established unsigned singers.

First and foremost, the house band rules and I would buy their album in a second. Sadly, it seems they're more a mish-mash of truly great session performers and not a legit band at all - yet. There are notes they'll open for Supernova on the big winter tour, and I hope they keep the name "House Band". The guitarist, who is excellent, was the guitarist for Pink and Christina Aguilera of all things, and can be found on MySpace below, and the bassist is quite an accomplished artist.

Now the little known facts:

1. I have a crush on Storm Large. Don't tell my wife, it's a secret.
   
2. Storm Large has a book featuring nudie shots of her. I haven't bought it. (NSFW)
   
3. Storm's off-CBS band contains a member of Everclear.
   
4. Dilana does a killer "Hit Me Baby" cover, found on her MySpace.
   
5. Jenny Galt has contributed two songs to 'Falcon Beach'. Heh.
   
6. Jill Gioia has already performed with INXS, and on Letterman.
   
7. Lukas' profile proves CBS can't spell I Mother Earth or Prozzak.
   
8. Ryan Star is probably the dark horse here, but he's not right for this band.
   
9. Toby Rand opened for Nickelback. Sucker.
   
10. Who cast Zayra on this show? Fire that person.

Today's Rock Star: Supernova Links
House Band: Lead & Vocals
House Band: Rhythm Guitar
House Band: Lead Guitar
House Band: Drums
House Band: Bass
Storm Large official page
Storm Large Downloads
Magni's band's page, in Icelandic!
Dilana's official page
Jill Gioia's official page

Today's Rock Star: Supernova MySpace Links
Chris Pierson
Dana Andrews
Dilana
Jenny Galt
Jenny Galt's band Yellow Light
Jill Gioia
Josh Logan
Matt Hoffer
Patrice Pike
Ryan Star (fake)
Ryan Star (real)
Storm Large
Zayra Alvarez
Magnetico (House Band Lead Guitarist)

Hard Candy

Who hasn't heard of the Diet Coke/Mentos reaction? Those aren't in the know should check out this here first embedded video of 2006, where you'll learn what happens when you combine the two:

In what can only be attributed to an uncanny piece of quick acting for a large organization, Mentos has gone ahead and announced a Mentos Geyser Video Contest will begin later this month, complete with domain name! Not sure what's involved but I'm totally doing something for this. My idea is to offer old ladies a Mentos coated in capsicum, and when they're overcome with heat, offer them a freshly shaken Diet Coke...

Today's Random Links
10 uses for an unwanted England flag
Haven't our troops suffered enough?
All your snakes are belong to us

Forza Azzurri!

Yes right now I am incredibly happy with the outcome of yesterdays final. It was a great game for both sides and could easily have gone either way. As far as I’m concerned The World Cup is the greatest sports event in the world. It’s been an amazing tournament with plenty of surprises and lots of great soccer to watch. What a great month and I’m so proud of the Azzurri, as they came through and played amazing

Why Should You Come When I Call?

Here's the coolest thing you've seen in a while, and it works, I tested it on Paul this morning. Called the "Phone Trick Page" it's an Internet dialer that will allow you to call anyone using any caller ID or number you wish, and have a computerized voice speak your message to them. This afternoon Paul was treated with William's spoken word rendition of "I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride, I'm wanted, dead or alive." Of note, however, is that you don't want to use punctuation, as it speaks the symbol you use.

Also, in case you missed Kip's comment in the previous post, there has been a site set up to combat the alteration of Ontario's Trillium logo. Of course, it's the Conservative office setting it up to attack the Liberal Government, but regardless, if you hate the logo it's probably worth signing up. I really don't care about the apparent visual similarity to the Liberal logo, I just don't want Ontario represented by three guys reclining in a hot tub.

Today's Random Links
Pre-order the 2007 IKEA catalogue, win $500 in gift cards!
Delicious coffee regurgitated by weasels. It's the taste!
The 50 Worst Game Names Ever.. Nuts & Milk?!
Dude draws art in the dust on his Mini Cooper!

No Blue Sky

One thing I failed to mention the other day, and which is somewhat cool. I'm not sure if any of you Toronto-area folks heard about the tornado warnings, but Monday afternoon they called for chances of tornados from Orillia to Cobourg, and as they called for them, Mary and I found ourselves in a traffic jam at the "Welcome to Cobourg" sign. Almost immediately after getting the news on the radio, the storm clouds quite literally started brewing.

It's hard to explain but, directly above the car, a giant black cloud began to develop. It was spinning rapidly in a clockwise fashion, and all around it were smaller black storm clouds spinning themselves, and eventually getting pulled into the larger one. All around these clouds was pure blue sky, so essentially it was a storm immediately above the car. After a few minutes we got hit with hard rain, and soon after, hail. Strong winds started to blow debris all over the highway and on the car, along with the aforementioned rain and hail. Suddenly, after no more than a few minutes, it was gone and the sky was clear. No tornado, but one heck of a storm.

This is more interesting by the fact that, years ago, I was chased by a twister in New York State. Honest. My girlfriend at the time and I were on back-country roads watching this funnel start it's path across a field as we sped up to outrace it. It kept coming at us until it finally changed direction.

So, basically, the rumours that I can't be killed are true. Even storms fear me.

Today's Random Links
Do you know what part of a dog needs scratchin'? Do ya? It's their BRISKET.
Cliff's right, three people relaxing in a hot tub.. nice, Dalton
40-foot Optimus Prime constructed in China
The Hoff wants to take you home! (Thanks, Rob)

Boston: Day 4

Started day four by checking out, then driving down to the JFK Library & Museum. I have to note, although a current project has forced me into taking a required interest in JFK, I had never understood the fascination. As someone who didn't live through it, my understanding was that he'd been a womanizer who knew how to speak well, and who'd irritated a lot of people to the point where the list of possible assassins was a long one. After a couple hours at the Museum I have to say I can understand it now. While it's possible I was swayed by an obviously slanted view on the former President, he did seem to be someone whose intentions were true, and who had attempted to do things that were honest to himself without concern for what his advisors or financers said he should do. His ability to speak was interesting as a number of his speeces featured screw-ups or fumbled sentences, but it was when he seemed to deviate from his scripts and speak from the heart that the true solid comments came out. Interesting experience.

Mary wanted to hit Mr Bartley's Burger Cottage near the grounds of Harvard so we headed in there. It was a solid reminder of why you should never ever ever drive in Boston. A truly horrible experience as I attempted to get in the jumble of one-way streets and construction to find somewhere to park, make our way to the restaurant to find it was closed, and snag a coffee for the trip home. Harvard looked interesting enough but at that point I could care less about anything but getting out. My car hood was scratched - awesome - I had a bad headache and cared about nothing but leaving. It took forever to find our way back to the I-90 due to the mess of one-way streets running in all directions. My advice - never, ever drive in Boston.

We'd decided to take the long way home through the Adirondack Mountains, and because our morning had been eaten up (it was now 4PM) and my wife was anything but well, I began to realize we'd have to find somewhere to crash overnight in the mountains. Thus began the trip to Lake Placid.

The drive in is insane, amazing. I owe thanks to Mike Hogan of the FAN590 for turning us on to the idea of the trip, and I shall e-mail him thanks soon. However once in Lake Placid we found ourselves in the midst of a horse show that had sold the entire town out of hotel rooms. We caught some dinner (it's now 11PM) and decided our only hope was Saranac Lake, 15 minutes further. The Best Western there was sold out, but told us to try the Hotel Saranac. Thankfully, they not only had vacancy, but were affordable.

The Hotel Saranac is interesting - it's associated with Paul Smith's College, and all the hospitality students do their work credits at the hotel. So the restaurant staff, gift shop staff, front counter staff, all of them were students. Really interesting idea, and the place was great, including an inexpensive and tasty Eggs Benedict (my favourite breakfast) in the morning.

The shortest entry (thankfully) but don't take that to mean it was a bad trip - if you ever have the chance to drive via the Adirondacks I suggest you do it.

Boston: Day 3

Sorry for the delay, decided against spending my time on the net while there, but it's all still fresh in mind. Beware the long-windedness.

If only we'd thought to take the Old Town Trolleys Tour on our first full day, and I place this at the top of this post for good reason. If anyone is reading this in advance of a Boston trip take note: jump on the trolley day one. Mary and I payed the $29 for the chance to take this tour throughout Boston. The pass allows you to jump on and off at will, which unlimited reboarding, and stops at 17 different places throughout the city. While the trolley is actually in motion, the drivers fill you with information about the city, and it made for a terrific way to see the city. Using this option on your first day would allow you to see the entire city, then use your subsequent days to visit the areas you liked the most.

We hit the USS Constitution early and spent some time perusing the big beast, as well as the locally docked USS Cassin Young, and the USS Constitution Museum. As cliche as it might sound they make learning FUN(!!!11), although I'd had about enough of it after a couple hours. Back to the trolley and we took a pass by the TD Banknorth Garden, the home of the Bruins and Celtics. My comment of "it's cool that Boston's famous Garden is now spnosored by a Canadian bank!" was met with at least one menacing glare. I got Evan's text message noting that the Bruins had signed Chara right at that point, which was quite interesting. The next stop was Quincy Market, which we'd seen, and we didn't get off on subsequent stops of Boston Common, Beacon Hill, and Charles Street, as we'd seen them. We did get off at Back Bay, but solely for the reason of making the long 30-minute trek to Fenway Park.

En route we stumbled on Bukowski's, allowing me to knock one item off the Life List. We missed the weekday $1.69 hamburger special, but did manage to get a hot dog each and split the White Trash Cheese Dip. More importantly, I spun the Wheel of Indecision. The winner was Lone Star Ale, apparently the favourite beer of Texas according to the label, and I've never known a label to lie before. It was below average. The beer selection at Bukowski's is unparalleled in my travels, but I was happier to note I'd already tried many of them, including the $14.95 bottle of Saison Dupont. Suckers, I paid $1.95 at the LCBO.

Fenway is awesome, and I only wish I could have seen inside. A massive rustic building that screams baseball, unlike our pitiful Rogers Centre. Right across the street is Boston Beer Works, a true brew pub with - they claim - 25 beers with 12 on tap at any time. What they didn't claim before I arrived was that they'd be out of almost all the ones I wanted to try, although I still enjoyed the place. We'd already eaten so it was a lemonade for Mary and a Haymarket Hefe Weizen for me, and it was good. This city knows so much more about beer than pitiful Toronto and their Molson/Labatt/Coors.

We took the T back towards Trinity Church and jumped back on our trolley for the trip back to the wharf. After a brief rest at the hotel we came back over for dinner at Durgin Park, known for being one of the oldest restaurants in Boston, and perhaps more well known for having really crusty waitresses. Our waitress was a girl from Ireland, apparently over to make some money for the summer, although the crusty waitress behind her told us "they come here to make money, then p--s it away on booze", which might be true. I wasn't hungry so I did the Tour of Boston sampler - clam chowder and baked beans. Awesome. Our crusty waitress got mad when I laughed at her for collecting all the sugar bowls early, cradling them under her chin. She glared at me and barked "gotta save trips!" Fun. :)

Boston: Day 2

Sorry for the delay, decided against spending my time on the net while there, but it's all still fresh in mind. Beware the long-windedness.

Day two started with the water taxi, a unique form of transportation that's exactly what it sounds - a taxi from shore to shore by boat. It's a great way to see the "hahbah", with some terrific views. The reason we had to take it is because the hotel we won on Priceline was the Hyatt Harborside, which is located across the water from downtown Boston near the airport. While the folks at the Hyatt did what they could by shuttling us to and from the subway the days we were there, I still can't advise anyone ever stay there. Boston, being "America's walking city", really requires you to stay in the core where you can freely get to and from your "stuff".

Breakfast at Rudi's was fine, and my first adequate coffee since I'd left, and then it was the walk along the shore and north to the famed Faneuil Hall. Faneuil Hall is essentially an outdoor marketplace similar to the St Lawrence Market with less food and more shops, and is also home of the Cheers replica restaurant. For those seeking Cheers it's important to note there are two of them - Faneuil Hall is the Cheers bar, but nothing like the show on the outside. Cheers on Beacon Street, once called the Bull & Finch Pub, is the outside you're familiar with, but a complete dive inside. More on that later.

Faneuil Hall is amazing, and we saw it in the day and night. We continued on to the north end, aka Little Italy. They told us not to call it that because it irritates them, but since the cheering World Cup Italians were on my nerves, I insisted on calling it Little Italy whenever I had the chance. We hit Mike's Pastry for a recommended cannoli and it was worth the trip, AMAZING pastries. The entire district was excellent, really rustic, with haphazardly designed roads and cobblestone areas, lots of old-style shops.

We doubled back to Boston Common, the large public park in the centre of Boston, and America's first public park. Great place, immediately joined by the Public Garden, which we also strolled through. We crossed the street to the famed Newbury Street, which was balls. If you're into Yorkville you'll love it, but I'm not into Yorkville. The people of Boston had been so nice and inviting, and suddenly it felt like we'd walked into the land of arrogance. We still managed to find a good pub called Joe's American Bar & Grill where I actually enjoyed a burger, perfectly cooked, and a Samuel Adams Summer Ale on the recommendation of the waiter. Mrs. Jessup was getting tired at this point so I dragged her to Newbury Comics, which I've wanted to visit for about 15 years, and grabbed two CDs (Son Volt and The Thorns) and a DVD (Extreme) and then took the T (subway) back to the hotel.

The rest of the night was Extreme, which is already documented.

Boston: USS Constitution

USS Constitution, shot by Rick Jessup.
A shot from the front of the famous USS Constitution, aka "Old Ironsides".

Boston Tea Party

So we're just back to the hotel from the WAAF Boston Tea Party starring Extreme, aka the 10-year reunion of my favourite band. Things were cool.

First and foremost to fans of bands other than Extreme was, after the encore performances of Get the Funk Out and Hole Hearted, former drummer Paul Geary related a story of a poster on his wall as a child featuring a popular band from Boston that he had looked up to, and hoped to succeed on a national scale as they had. It was with that they announced the reunion of Boston - the band - on stage, where they performed "Rock and Roll Band" and a cover of "Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin.

I have to say, it was surreal to a certain degree for me. Everywhere I've ever been since getting my first Extreme album around 1989, I've been the biggest Extreme fan in the room. I've got all the singles and imports, the videos, DVDs, posters, shirts, guitar picks.. heck, I've got a Washburn electric because of Nuno. But I gotta say, the freaks were on parade tonight and it made me look like a guy who knew a couple tracks from the radio. People fresh out of the trailer, slam-dancing in the aisles, and making out in a decidedly odd way. Three guys beside me spent most of the night singing to one another, when they weren't busy groping each other and whispering into their ears. The average age of the show was probably 52, but the show was great and the guys were on.

I told Mary if she didn't like what she saw there to get the funk out. I didn't try to force feed her. So she got the funk out.

The venue was awesome, it had restaurants and bars to access at all times, so you were never more than 25 steps and $8 from a Bud Light. Looked like Kingswood, which added to the "1992" feeling of the evening. I was almost in Rockland Wonderland.

Now I'm tired, and I must rest. Another day awaits. This is a great town, though. Not Seattle great, but yet another one to prove to me just how paltry Toronto is. Sad, but true.